Ankle injuries resulting from forced internal rotation and flexion of the ankle joint are commonly seen in work and sport activities and routinely result from participation in sports, such as running, tennis, basketball, and hiking. These ankle injuries vary in severity from simple ligament pulls to ligament ruptures and bone fractures. In certain cases, lengthy time periods are required to achieve full recovery, though many types of sprains tend to recur. In recognition of the frequent occurrences of these injuries, it has been a common practice for athletes to protect themselves from such injuries through the use of orthopedic devices which limit the natural ankle movements that are normally encountered in the course of walking or running. These orthopedic devices are typically provided in the form of ankle braces, elastic bandages or the like, made of stiff material, laced, wrapped or otherwise attached to the ankle. However, these types of support devices have not been very popular among the public due to such devices having the effect of excessively restricting most of the ankle's movements thus resulting in poor athletic performance, as well as being difficult and time-consuming to install upon the ankle and uncomfortable to wear.
Due to these deficiencies associated with conventional ankle braces and the related techniques used to prevent sports related ankle injuries, various types of prior art athletic shoes have been developed in an attempt to incorporate structures adapted to provide support to the ankle of the wearer. Examples of such prior art devices include shoes which are formed to include a high-top upper portion having a cushioning portion commencing just below the ankle and extending over the lower portion of the leg at the ankle opening. Other types of prior art shoe constructions range from an essentially unitary sheet panel covering the entire upper portion of the shoe, to diverse arrangements of textile sheet portions and leather reinforcement portions which act to distribute stresses within the shoe to prevent injury to the ankle.
Though the prior art shoe designs attempt to provide adequate support to the foot of the wearer so as to prevent strains or other injury to the ankle resulting from excess movement of the ankle joint, such prior art constructions do not fully achieve their objective due to the competing demands of shoe flexibility and light weight, with the desirability of providing full support. As such, in addition to using the prior art ankle supporting shoes, athletes generally tape their feet to provide additional support when playing strenuous games. Though certain prior art athletic shoes such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,989,350 to Bunch et al. attempt to overcome the known deficiencies of other prior art athletic shoes by incorporating strut and support strap arrangements, these and other similar shoes are also generally deficient in that they do not provide uniform support to the entire foot of the shoe wearer. The present invention overcomes the deficiencies associated with prior art ankle supporting shoes by providing an ankle supporting shoe which is adapted to provide full support to the foot of the wearer.